Tennis Troubles
by Orange Ratchet
Summary: Helga and Phoebe set up a tennis tournament in Gerald Field to see which person will win a chance to be Helga's partner for an upcoming tennis tournament! But will the teams cause trouble when things start to get out of hand, and who will win the tennis tournament?
Here's the first chapter of yet another Hey Arnold/sports related project that I was hoping they'd do a Hey Arnold episode on, but they never did... and that is the wonderful sport of tennis! Well, hopefully this fanfiction makes up for the vibes it has! Anyway, enjoy!

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Over at Gerald Field, the girls and boys of PS 118's fourth grade was watching Helga, now wearing a green army helmet over her head as she started marching back and forth. "Listen up, people! I have gathered you all here for a very, VERY important reason!"

Gerald sighed and frowned as he said, "Helga, my dad and I only said you can borrow my dad's helmet for a school project. We did not say anything about you wearing it to the baseball field and having fun with it!"

"Is that backtalk I hear, soldier?" Helga said, glaring at Gerald, who yelped.

"Uh, no, of course not. Carry on." Gerald chuckled nervously as he sat down.

"That's what I thought." Helga said as Arnold raised his hand. "Yeah, football head?"

"Permisson to speak, Helga?" Arnold asked.

"Permission granted. What's up?" Helga sighed, rolling her eyes.

"I know you have an important reason for coming over... but the question is... does it have anything to do with an upcoming tournament that's taking place in the park?" Arnold raised an eyebrow.

"...maybe it is." Helga said.

"Oh, you want to enter the Tennis Tournament?" Sid said in surprise.

"Who gave you permission to speak?" Helga glared.

"For goodness sakes, take my dad's helmet off, Helga, you are not a real general!" Gerald frowned as he got up and grabbed the helmet off Helga's head.

Helga sighed. "Ugh, fine... look, the reason I called you here is because I want to see how well you can play tennis! As you all may have noticed, and it wasn't easy to do so, I managed to talk with my dad and he set up the tennis net in Gerald Field, which is why we're delaying baseball until further notice."

"Ah, tennis..." Rhonda smiled as she looked up. "One of the only sports that I actually like."

"Why do you like tennis?" Nadine asked.

"It's the only sport where I don't break my nails." Rhonda smiled, looking at her painted nails.

"Can we get back on topic, please?" Helga frowned. "Look, the reason I'm doing this is to set up a tag-team tournament. I want everyone to go in partners and play out the best of your ability. Winning team gets to play against each other, and that person is my partner for this week's upcoming tennis tournament!"

"...why can't you ask one of us to be your partner? Can't you ask Phoebe to be your partner?" Harold asked. "She is your friend."

"I'm glad you brought that up, fatso, because I have two reasons. Phoebe, would you like to explain?" Helga said, turning to Phoebe, who was sitting next to Sheena.

Phoebe nodded as she got up. "Well... Helga did ask me to be her partner, but unfortunately, the day of the tournament is also the day I visit my aunt, so I can't delay that."

"And I do understand why. It's tough, but it's fair." Helga nodded as she turned to the others. "And second, asking people would just be too easy. I prefer watching you people duke it out in a tennis tournament."

Everyone looked at each other as they whispered... then nodded as they turned back to Helga as Sheena said, "I guess that makes sense."

"So... a tag team tournament, huh? Do we get to pick the partners?" Curly asked.

"Yeah, you get to pick the partners, but not until AFTER I finish explaining the rules. So hold yourself still, will you?" Helga frowned.

Curly groaned as he looked down.

Rhonda rolled her eyes. "Playing alone is fine, but why would I need a partner?"

"Get a partner, or I'll replace you when we do that line-up march in the alley against the boys next week!" Helga threatened.

"Oh come on, you know you need me." Rhonda laughed as she filed her nails.

"Just work with someone!" Helga argued as Rhonda sighed.

"All right, all right, I see you're serious about this. Besides, who would you replace me with?" Rhonda asked.

Helga paused as she turned to Lila. "Hey, Lila, you always said you wanted to join us in that line march we do with the boys. How would you like to replace Rhonda?"

"Really, you mean it?" Lila smiled.

Rhonda yelped as she chuckled nervously. "Okay, okay, let's not go that far!"

Helga nodded, knowing Rhonda got the message as she turned to the others. "All right, here's how we're going to do this! We're doing a tag-team style tournament... and it's basically tennis. The first team to get to the finals and beats the other team wins. Then the first person from the winning team to beat their partner wins. Pretty straight forward and to the point. Fair enough?"

Everyone looked at each other before nodding.

"Great! Phoebe and I will be coaching so... let's have fun, shall we! Choose your partners, come to us, and draw a number. The number you get is what you'll be assigned in the tournament!" Helga explained.

Everyone nodded as they thought it would be pretty fun. So they decided to quickly choose their partners and as soon as they were done, they walked straight up to Helga, as she was now using the army hat to put slips of paper on there as they selected numbers.

Phoebe nodded. "Okay... so, tell me what your number is, one at a time, and I'll give you the bulletins on the tournament."

Pretty soon, after everyone told Phoebe their numbers, Phoebe had the tournament all set up.

"Okay, here's the roster! Hope you guys are satisfied with the outcome." Phoebe smiled as everyone gathered around.

 _Nadine and Rhonda VS Harold and Stinky_

 _Sid and Brainy VS Peapod Kid and Tucker Wittenberg_

 _Curly and Eugene VS Lorenzo and Iggy_

 _Arnold and Gerald VS Lila and Sheena_

Helga looked at the roster in surprise as she turned to Phoebe. "Really? Out of ALL the people that we could get for my potential partners, these are the fourth graders I can possibly get? I'm pretty sure we have a lot more!"

"Yeah, but since when do we actually TALK with the other fourth graders in our class?" Phoebe asked.

"...good point." Helga paused. "Okay, here's what's going to happen... eight teams, four matches. The first four teams to win will go to the semi-finals tomorrow!"

"Gee willikers, already?" Sid asked.

"Well... I was expecting a lot more people, and since you guys are pretty much the only people I've made communications with... at one point or the other... I don't know, talk to Arnold, I'm sure he's friendly with just about EVERYONE in this vicinity." Helga sighed. "All right... first match-up... Nadine and Rhonda AGAINST Harold and Stinky. Both of you teams get to the other side and we'll get started."

The two teams announced nodded as they started to walk towards the net, ready for anything.

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That's the end of the first chapter! How'd you all like it? Who do you think will win this tennis tournament! Anyway, read, revew, criticize and suggest, folks!


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